


What comes through the bond

by sedna_mode



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Menstruation, Sharing Symptoms, Team Bonding, frank and open discussion of menstruation, lion bond
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-04
Updated: 2018-02-04
Packaged: 2019-03-13 17:52:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13575843
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sedna_mode/pseuds/sedna_mode
Summary: Pidge gets her period. The boys feel echoes of it





	What comes through the bond

**Author's Note:**

> I've had this idea kicking around in my head for a few months now where Pidge unwittingly broadcasts her menstrual symptoms through the lion bond, a la Sun and Lito from Sense8. This is pure self indulgence, and yes all the symptoms in the fic are things I've experienced (though some slightly dialed up for the sake of drama, bite me).
> 
> Don't think too hard about where this falls in the narrative, it's like somewhere in season 2 maybe idk *handwaves*
> 
> If plain and frank discussions of all the gross parts of periods squick you out this may not be the fic for you

Pidge woke up early to a familiar dull throbbing in her lower abdomen and a few drops of blood in her underwear.

She sighed.

All things considered, it wasn’t so bad. She hadn’t soaked through and soiled her sheets, and her underwear would be fine after a rinse in cold water and a wash. Today was a rest day, so no one would come bother her if she didn’t show for breakfast, plus she had everything she needed right in her room.

The pain in her gut flared up, as though it had only been waiting for her acknowledgement, blossoming into a fire that twisted and pulsed through her abdomen.

Pidge couldn’t suppress a hiss.

“Well fuck you too,” she grumbled, glaring in the approximate direction of her uterus.

Hunched over in an attempt to relieve the pain, Pidge shuffled around her room, getting everything ready to make herself comfortable for a day curled up in bed. First she set her dirty underwear to soak in a little basin of cold water, then she pulled a pad from her stash and put on a fresh pair of underwear along with her comfiest, softest pyjama pants. Digging through a pile of space mall knick knacks she found a couple packets of the salty snacks she liked and tossed them on the bed for later, then rooted around until she produced her heating pad—a small Altean device about the size of both her hands that delivered a steady warmth when activated; Coran had supplied them to all the paladins for a training run on an ice planet, but Pidge had found it had another handy use.

After a quick run to the bathroom Pidge slipped back into her bed, propping her pillows for a comfortable backrest against the wall. Heating pad against her lower abdomen, computer balanced on her knees, snacks and water within easy reach, Pidge nodded in satisfaction and decided she wouldn’t be moving for anything save bathroom breaks or an actual emergency for the rest of the day.

* * *

 

Shiro careened violently into wakefulness, tossed out like a chewed up carcass by yet another nightmare, the details of which were already fading into some dark and shadowy recess of his subconscious.

He lay for a few moments, trying to regain his bearings.

“You are on the Castle of Lions. You are in your own room onboard. You are here with your team: Keith, Pidge, Lance, Hunk, as well as the two Alteans who own this ship: Allura and Coran. There is no one else here.”

He whispered the mantra into the dim light of his room until his heart returned to a more normal rhythm. When he was confident the nightmare had been banished (for the time being at least) he twisted around and propped himself on an elbow to get a look at the little clock on his bedside table, wondering if he could get away with starting the day now without inviting narrowed eyes and pointed questions about how much sleep he was getting.

The movement caused a dull pain to bloom across his lower back, waxing and waning in time with his heartbeat.

Surprise sent him falling back down onto his back with a wheeze. Shiro was no stranger to aches and pains of varying degrees of intensity and varying origins, but usually he knew where they came from. And if he didn’t, that tended to carry some _bad implications._

This had come out of nowhere, as far as he could tell; he hadn’t been injured recently and his training hadn’t been any more strenuous than usual.

“Oh come on, I’m not that old.”

Moving more carefully now Shiro pushed himself back up into a sitting position. The pain in his back flared as he moved, but once he was upright it calmed somewhat. He stretched his arms above his head and that seemed to help too.

Deciding he had likely just pulled something while tossing around during his nightmare, Shiro pushed the pain to the back of his mind and set about his morning routine. He was about three quarters of the way through his workout, in the middle of holding the plank position on his elbows and toes, when sudden agony ripped through his lower abdomen.

“Mmff,” he grunted, falling to the floor and folding in on himself protectively.

The shock of it punched the air out of his lungs, and his breathing came fast and shallow as he rode out wave after wave of violent cramping in his gut, curled tightly on the floor of his room.

“What the _hell_ ,” he gasped through gritted teeth.

Shiro’s mind spun in too many directions at once, threatening to tip into dark places he didn’t want to contemplate; he _did not like_ when his body did something unexpected that he couldn’t explain.

* * *

 

Keith slammed into the ground, breath rattling in his lungs with the impact, and glared up at the training bot above him.

“ _Dammit!”_ he hissed between his teeth, frustration mounting.

It was the third bot to defeat him this morning, and this should not have been happening. The bots weren’t even set at a difficult level; this was the setting he used all the time for a light workout, and they were pummeling him.

As the bot dissolved back into light Keith rolled up onto an elbow, trying to catch his breath. He was unusually sluggish this morning; every movement seemed to take more effort than normal as though he was moving through water. When he had woken up feeling more tired than when he’d gone to bed he had hoped a few rounds on the bots before breakfast would wake him up, but the opposite was happening.

Then there was also the matter of his chest. Pushing himself back to his feet Keith rubbed at his pectorals, trying to relieve some of the soreness there. It didn’t quite feel like the soreness of overused muscles; this was a new and uncomfortable sensation he had no explanation for.

He took off his shirt, hoping that would help with whatever was going on with his chest, and called up the next bot.

Not even two minutes later he was again on the floor, this time having landed on his front; Keith groaned as the impact jarred his already sensitive chest. Giving it up as a lost cause he called for the end of the training sequence as he pushed himself into a seated position, absently rubbing at the soreness as he did so.

He could feel his energy draining fast and a powerful fatigue setting in. Maybe it would do him well to take advantage of the rest day and go back to bed. The thought of losing a whole day irked him, but if he was having this much trouble with the bots it might mean he was getting sick, in which case pushing himself more would only make it worse.

Sheathing his sword, Keith rose to his feet.

Then immediately regretted it as he was suddenly hit by an overwhelming wave of dizziness.

“Wha—“

Keith’s vision whited over and before he could even react he crumpled to the training room floor in a dead faint.

* * *

 

Lance knew the moment he opened his eyes that this would be a _shit_ day. Not only had he not managed to sleep in like he wanted to ( _what good was a rest day if he couldn’t even take advantage of it_ ) but he just felt crummy all around.

If asked he wouldn’t even have been able to pinpoint why; he just felt like he was half a step out of sync with his body and everything around him and he knew it wasn’t going to be pleasant.

He went through his morning routine on autopilot, hoping it would help him feel a little more like himself, but it wasn’t until he was getting undressed to hop in the shower that he became aware of a more localized discomfort around his stomach area.

“What the…”

He poked at his belly curiously, and in response it gave an ominous gurgle.

“Oh oops, sorry.”

He moved to the long mirror in the bathroom and examined himself more closely, turning this way and that for different angles, then leaning in to scrutinize his face.

“Urgh just great,” he grumbled at his reflection, “not only do I feel like crap, I’m bloated too.”

Lance’s stomach gave another wet gurgle and he wasted no time in shuffling over to the toilet to plunk himself down unceremoniously.

What followed was one of the more awful bouts of diarrhoea Lance had experienced in his life.

While he waited for his insides to finish emptying out Lance tried to figure out what might have caused his current predicament. His first thought was food poisoning, but thinking back on it he hadn’t eaten anything out of the ordinary in the last day. But if not that, then what?

After he had finished he felt marginally better, though still bloated and uncomfortable. Plus his stomach kept making those weird noises. By the time he finished his shower he had to go to the bathroom again, and then once more after he was dressed. He had never pooped so much in such a short span of time, but at least he was feeling better by the time he left his room in search of breakfast.

He still wasn’t back to his usual self, but the bloating had also gone down a bit, so Lance hoped whatever he had caught was already working its way out of his system.

* * *

 

Nothing was going right for Hunk.

He had woken up with the beginnings of a massive headache brewing in his temples and an uncomfortable buzzing under his skin that threatened to boil over uncontrollably at the slightest provocation. He hated feeling like this, like he was one wrong move away from losing his temper entirely.

And the worst part was he had no idea why this was happening to him. No one had done anything particularly more annoying than normal as far as he recalled. There was no _reason_ for it.

He had retreated to the kitchen, in the hopes that some quiet baking would help steady his nerves before the others started filtering in for breakfast.

Except that that wasn’t working either.

First he had realized they were out of the flour substitute he liked, when he had been so sure they had plenty left. Then his irritation started bubbling over while he scrambled to find something else to use to salvage his scones and in his distraction he overcompensated and had to readjust all the other ingredients to match. By the time the scones were ready for the oven he was practically vibrating out of his skin, annoyed at himself for his mistake but mostly at whoever had _used the rest of his flour without asking and hadn’t even had the decency to let him know they were out._

He was halfway through washing up all the dirty dishes and implements he had used, irritation somewhat worked out through angry scrubbing, when the kitchen door slid open and Lance wandered in.

“Hey Hunk, do you think we could do crepes for breakfast today? I’ve been craving crepes.”

Hunk resisted throwing the mixing spoon he was washing at Lance’s head, but it was a close thing. What gave him the _right_ to just _waltz in here_ with that _flippant tone_ and _completely ignore_ all the work Hunk had already put into breakfast and ask for _crepes_. What did Hunk look like, some kind of _servant?_

Before any of that could slip out of his mouth Hunk managed to bite out a strained “no, we’re having scones.”

He forced himself to turn away from Lance and balled his fists on the counter, breathing deep to try and wrestle down the irrational spike of rage Lance had unwittingly caused. He did not want to blow up at his best friend just because he had the misfortune to be within Hunk’s blast radius.

“I—ok man no worries.” Lance sounded crestfallen and a little hurt, and Hunk wanted to kick himself for being the cause of it. “Hey… is everything alright?”

“I’m _fine._ ”

In a corner of his mind Hunk knew how pointless that was; he was very visibly _not_ fine and he still couldn’t look at Lance, but before either of them could do or say anything more the oven beeped to say the scones were ready.

When Hunk pulled them out he knew at a glance they weren’t, in fact, ready. They weren’t even _edible_. They hadn’t risen or kept their shape, instead all fusing into one uniform flat _mess_ that was charred to the point of being unrecognizable.

“ _Quiznack!_ ” With a yell that was equal parts rage and frustration and dismay Hunk flung the baking pan into the sink.

And then, just as abruptly as it had taken hold of him this morning, the irritation that had been a constant itch under his skin dissipated, replaced by soul-crushing sadness and bone-deep weariness. Hunk’s eyes stung with tears and he sank to the ground with a whimper, back against the counter and hands over his face.

He didn’t register Lance’s approach until he felt the other boy sink down to the floor next to him. Lance’s warm palm tentatively came to rest on Hunk’s knee, as though he was afraid to cause another blow-up.

“Hey buddy, are you gonna tell me what that was all about just now?”

“It’s stupid,” Hunk sniffed wetly.

“It’s definitely not stupid, especially if it’s making you feel this bad.”

For a split-second Hunk considered not telling him, but one glance through his fingers at Lance’s concerned face was enough to crumble his defenses, and suddenly everything was spilling out of him in a rush.

“It’s just, I don’t know. Nothing wants to go _right_ for me today. I woke up so so angry for no reason, and I thought baking something would calm me down but then a bunch of stupid stuff happened and just made everything worse like we were out of flour and I miscalculated the ingredients and my scones failed miserably. And you came in asking for crepes and it made me feel like I was doing everything wrong and everything was just too much. And now I’m sitting on the floor crying for some reason? I don’t know what’s happening with me, Lance.”

Lance gathered Hunk in his arms, rubbing soothing circles into his back.

“Sounds like you’ve been having a pretty rough morning, huh.”

“But that’s just the thing? Like objectively speaking it shouldn’t be anything to get so worked up over? I failed a recipe, so what. I don’t understand!”

Lance heard him out, then gently coaxed Hunk’s face up to look at him, swiping tears off his face with his thumbs.

“You know, emotions are weird and messy things. Sometimes there’s no logic behind them. But whatever the case may be your feelings are not stupid. Not _ever._ ”

“I guess…”

“How are you feeling now?”

“A little better, I think.”

“Good.”

Lance sat up straight and Hunk took that as his cue to pull away, though Lance’s hand found Hunk’s and gave a gentle squeeze.

“In that case,” said Lance, glancing to the exit of the kitchen. “I think we should go find the others, especially given the weird mornings we’ve both had. I have a sneaking suspicion there’s something up with the team right now, though I hope not.”

“Wait, what’s this about you having a weird morning?”

“Oh yeah. While you were dealing with unbridled rage I was dealing with unending diarrhoea and a bloated stomach!”

“Oh my God, Lance, ew. Are you ok?”

“Still pretty eh, but it’s not the worst I’ve had. Better than I was earlier for sure. But yeah, if anyone else has the same thing we should help them.”

“Yeah, let’s go.”

* * *

 

Shiro needed to move.

The pain in his back and abdomen had downgraded to a constant dull pulsing ache, more easily wrestled to the back of his mind. If he moved slowly he could probably make it off his floor and to the infirmary to filch some painkillers.

Carefully, breathing very deliberately, Shiro uncurled and pushed himself upright, before rising to his feet. The pain had him standing a little hunched over, but at least it wasn’t debilitating.

Moving like he was about 50 years older than he really was Shiro made his way out into the hallway, one arm curled around his middle in a vain attempt to soothe the pain and the other sliding along the wall for support. If he concentrated on his footsteps he could ignore his discomfort to a certain extent.

He had come to a fork in the hallway when he was pulled out of his thoughts by a chittering down near his feet. Looking down he noticed one of Allura’s mice, the grey one with the red eyes, in the mouth of the hall branching off to his right squeaking for his attention.

“Oh, hello—I forget which one you are, sorry.”

When Shiro acknowledged it the mouse redoubled its squeaking and scampered a short way down the hall before turning to look back, clearly expecting Shiro to follow.

“No, I’m not going that way, that’s the training deck.” Shiro pointed down the hall straight ahead of him. “I need to go to the infirmary.”

Clearly unsatisfied with his response, the mouse darted in front of Shiro, effectively blocking his path, and chittered angrily at him before running back into the right-hand hall.

“No, what are you doing? I don’t want to train right now”

The mouse was growing more agitated by the second, clearly frustrated that Shiro wasn’t understanding. It sat back on its haunches and stared at Shiro, tapping its front paws together in apparent contemplation. Then it squeaked triumphantly and made a grab for its own tail, holding it in one paw and making the tip into a point that it waved around in the air.

“Uh… you seriously want me to play charades with you? Now?”

The mouse just glared at him and made a few pointed jabs with its tail.

“Fine, fine. Um. Conductor? Laser pointer? Knife? Sword?”

The mouse gave an assenting squeak and let go of its tail before pointing down the hall again, toward the training room.

“Okay. Sword, training deck… wait, are you talking about Keith? Is he over there now?”

A cold dread started creeping up the back of Shiro’s neck. It wasn’t unusual for Keith to be training; he used the room more than anyone else on the team. But to have a mouse so worked up over it was odd to say the least. Abandoning his previous plan Shiro turned right and started following after the mouse as fast as his aching back and cramping gut would let him.

“Is it Keith? Did something happen? Is he alright?”

In response the mouse dropped to the floor and lay still for a second, tongue lolling out.

Shiro inhaled sharply as the dread bloomed into full-fledged panic. He broke into a run, ignoring the way his own pain spiked. He skidded to a halt in front of the training room doors and jabbed his hand impatiently at the panel to open them up.

When he burst into the room, the mouse on his heels, it took only a split second to spot the crumpled form on the ground.

“Keith!”

The sound of his own name seemed to rouse the red paladin and he groaned, trying to push himself up. Shiro sank to his knees next to him and gently pushed him back down.

“Don’t try to move, just stay still.”

Shiro looked around, taking stock. Keith’s face was unnaturally white but he didn’t seem to have any obvious injuries anywhere. His shirt was off for some reason but other than that nothing was out of the ordinary. Keith was blinking up at him like he couldn’t quite see properly, confusion etched all over his face.

“Shiro? Is that you? Wh—what happened?” Keith’s voice was weak, barely a whisper as he tried to make sense of the situation.

“I think you fainted, Keith. Do you know where you are? Do you remember what happened?”

“The… training deck right? I—I think I was fighting some bots? Why am I on the floor?”

“I told you, I think you fainted. Do you have any idea why? Are you feeling sick?”

“Fainted? I don’t faint.” Keith frowned, confused. With every passing minute he seemed to be regaining his bearings, colour coming back to his cheeks. “I was feeling a little tired earlier, but it wasn’t that bad.”

“Okay. Does anything hurt? Do you think you could sit up?”

“Yeah, I can sit.” With a little help he made it up, now sitting with his back propped against Shiro’s knee and with Shiro’s arm steadying his shoulders. “My chest feels a bit sore, but I don’t think it’s an injury. More like sore muscles but not quite at the same time.”

Shiro glanced down, assessing. But as Keith had said there was no injury. “Is that why you took your shirt off?”

“Yeah. Thought it’d help not having fabric on it, or something. Didn’t do much really. Could I have it back by the way? I’m getting kinda cold.”

“Yeah, of course.” Shiro cast about and spotted the bundle of dark cloth on the ground not far away. To reach it he had to let go of Keith; he stayed upright on his own, but he sank back gratefully into Shiro’s support when he returned. “Do you have any idea how long you were on the ground like that?”

Keith pondered it while he pulled his shirt back on with slow deliberate movements. “Mm, what time is it now?”

Shiro glanced at the clock on the training room wall. “Just a bit past 8 am Castle Time.”

Keith scrunched his nose, thinking. “I don’t think it was very long, maybe a couple minutes max.”

Shiro nodded. “Okay. I think the best thing now would be to get some food into you. Think you can make it to the kitchen?”

It wasn’t the infirmary like Shiro had planned, but at the moment making sure Keith was alright was his first priority.

“Yeah, think so. Might need to lean against you though.”

“No problem at all.”

They started to clamber back to their feet, Shiro’s hands never leaving Keith. When they straightened, the pain in Shiro’s back and abdomen, forgotten in his worry over Keith, made itself known again. Instinctually he hunched over slightly, grunting under his breath.

Keith, sharp as always, didn’t miss a thing. “Are _you_ ok?”

“I’m fine, don’t worry.”

Keith shot him a flat look.

“Alright, I woke up with a weird pain in my lower back and cramps in my gut. I don’t know why. But I’ll be fine after some painkillers.”

Keith snorted. “What a fine pair we make, huh. Between the two of us we barely have half a functioning human.”

“Very funny.”

The mouse chittered happily at seeing them up and led the way toward the kitchen.

* * *

 

Lance and Hunk were only a couple hallways from the kitchen when they heard voices coming toward them. Hunk had calmed down considerably, though he was still a little morose and kept hold of Lance’s hand for comfort. Lance was more than happy to oblige, privately reveling in the contact too.

Lance called ahead. “Who’s over there?”

The voices paused, and then Shiro’s voice drifted over. “It’s us. Me’n’Keith.”

Sure enough, within the next seconds the pair rounded a corner into Lance and Hunk’s corridor. They were also accompanied by a mouse, though that wasn’t the most striking think about them. Shiro and Keith seemed to be leaning on each other for support as they walked, and Keith’s face seemed unusually pale.

“You guys look terrible, what happened?” Hunk piped up, giving voice to Lance’s thoughts.

Shiro and Keith exchanged a look. Keith spoke first.

“It’s been a weird morning.”

“Keith passed out on the training deck,” added Shiro.

Lance’s eyes widened and he shot Keith a surprised “really?” at the same time that Keith spluttered a betrayed “Shiro!”

Hunk threw in an “oh jeez, you ok dude?” half a beat later.

Colour rose in Keith’s cheeks and he avoided looking at anyone directly. “I’m fine. It wasn’t serious. And if you make fun of me, Lance, I’ll kick your ass.”

Lance held his free hand up in promise. “Wasn’t planning on it. The circumstances are too bizarre; me and Hunk had our own bout of unpleasantness this morning.”

“What happened?” asked Shiro.

“Well, I woke up bloated and uncomfortable and had some wicked diarrhoea,” started Lance, ignoring the exclamations of disgust from the other three. “And Hunk here had a bit of an emotional breakdown over failed scones.”

“It was stupid…” muttered Hunk.

Lance squeezed his hand warningly. “I told you, your emotions aren’t stupid.”

Hunk grunted noncommittally.

“Huh,” said Keith, before turning to Shiro and elbowing him in the side. “Tell them about your morning.”

“Oh it’s—“

“You had a weird morning too?” questioned Lance. “You gotta tell us. We all said ours.”

Shiro sighed. “Fine. I don’t know where it came from but my lower back was really sore when I woke up, like I had pulled a muscle in my sleep or something. But then I also started getting these really bad cramps low in my gut out of nowhere. I was actually on my way to get painkillers when I found Keith.”

At the word ‘cramps’ it was like a switch flipped on in Lance’s head. “Wait. Wait wait wait wait guys I think I know what this is.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, though I don’t understand how it’s possible. If you put everything that’s happened to all of us together what does it lead to?”

Three sets of uncomprehending eyes met his.

“Okay, look,” explained Lance. He pointed to each in turn as he listed their symptoms. “Bloating, general uncomfortableness, diarrhoea, mood swings, irritation, lower back pain and cramping, fainting.”

Shiro and Keith both looked confused, but comprehension dawned in Hunk’s eyes. “No way…”

Keith raised his hand. “I was also feeling really tired and had a sore chest before I fainted.”

Lance clapped his hands and pointed at him triumphantly like that explained everything. “Yes! Exactly!”

“But how?” questioned Hunk, frowning.

Shiro waved to get people’s attention. “I still have no idea what’s going on.”

“Me neither,” added Keith.

Lance chuckled. “Right, you guys didn’t grow up around many women, can’t blame you for not knowing. They’re all symptoms of menstruation!”

“Oh,” said Shiro.

Keith narrowed his eyes at Lance, as though trying to decide whether he’d just been insulted. “I do know what a period is, you know.”

Lance waved it off. “Yeah, sure, you have the sex ed version. But it’s different living with it firsthand for your whole life.”

Keith bristled, but Shiro put a calming hand on his shoulder. “I get it looks like menstruation when said like that, but how is it possible we’re getting these symptoms?”

“Has anyone seen Pidge today yet?” interjected Hunk.

Lance gasped. “You don’t think—“

Hunk nodded. “I don’t know how it works, but I have a feeling she’s the source of all this.”

“I haven’t seen her,” said Keith.

“Me neither,” added Hunk.

“Ditto,” offered Lance. “Could she be in her lab? Or still in her room?”

“I think she’s in her room,” said Shiro, “I remember hearing her get up to go to the bathroom while I was doing my workout.”

“To Pidge’s room it is!” cried Lance.

“Um…” said Keith. “Can I get food first? I did just pass out.”

“Right. To the kitchen! And then to Pidge’s room.”

* * *

 

Pidge was on her second movie of the day, quite comfortably ensconced with a packet of snacks in hand and her heating pad delivering steady soothing warmth, when there was a knock at her door. She ignored it at first, not in the mood for human interaction at the moment.

The knock came again, more insistent, accompanied by Hunk’s voice. “Pidge, you in there?”

Pidge groaned. “No, go away!”

There was half a beat of silence and then a quieter knock, this time with Shiro’s voice attached. “Pidge, please open up, we’d like to talk to you about something.”

“Oh my God, how many of you are out there.”

Lance’s voice was next. “Hey Pidge are you on your period right now?”

That one annoyed her enough to toss her computer aside and stomp to the door, flinging it open to glare up at him.

“What the hell, Lance.”

Belatedly she registered that all four of her teammates were on the other side of the door.

“What’s this about, then? We don’t have any training or anything, I’m not late.”

“It’s not that,” started Shiro, then he trailed off as though at a loss for words to explain the situation.

Hunk took over for him. “We think we might be getting, like, echoes of your period symptoms?”

“What.”

Lance rolled his eyes. “You’re not explaining it right.”

“And you just barging in and asking her if she’s on her period is better?” interjected Keith.

Lance stuck his tongue out at him, then turned back to Pidge. “Look, I don’t know how exactly, Hunk thinks maybe it has something to do with forming Voltron so often and the Lion Bond or whatever, but we’ve all been having weird symptoms all morning and they add up to menstruation. I’ve been bloated and chained to the toilet, Hunk had a breakdown in the kitchen, Shiro’s had aches and cramps, and Keith had a sore chest and passed out. So, are you on your period, yes or no? Because if yes that’ll explain everything but if no we’re back at square one.”

Pidge blinked, taking them all in, and opened her mouth to say something before closing it again. She frowned, thinking it through.

“I… yes, I’m on my period.”

Lance whooped.

“But I don’t understand? This is the first time it’s happened to you guys? Because it’s definitely not the first time I’ve had it in space.”

“Maybe it has to do with the bond deepening and changing?” offered Keith. “We don’t really know exactly how it works, it’s kind of mystical.”

“Maybe we should consult Allura or Coran, they might know more about this,” said Shiro.

Pidge grimaced. She really didn’t feel like running all over the castle chasing answers at the moment. “Can we do that later? Right now I’d rather curl up in bed and watch movies.”

Lance cheered. “Team movie! We can all wait this out and be miserable together.”

“… That wasn’t an invitation.”

“Too late.”

* * *

 

Pidge wasn’t too sure how it happened but within half a varga she found herself sitting in the lounge with a blanket, waiting for the rest of her team to arrange themselves around her and settle in for a movie. Hunk supplied some muffins he whipped up since no one had had a proper breakfast, and Lance dumped an armful of pillows and cushions on the couch before joining the others already installed.

Shiro lay curled up with his head in Pidge’s lap and his feet in Keith’s, holding the heating pad she had lent him against his abdomen while Pidge kept her hands busy giving him head scritches. He had groaned in sweet relief when Pidge first gave it to him, and he looked like he never wanted to let it go.

As everyone got comfortable she looked around fondly. “I do feel bad you all have to go through this, especially you Shiro. My cramps are always the worst part of it, sometimes I can’t even move from the pain. I’ll try and figure out a way to close off the lion bond when it happens again.”

Shiro grunted from her lap. “I never realized… I mean I knew conceptually what periods were and I knew the list of symptoms, but actually experiencing it myself... And you go through this every month.”

Pidge shrugged, laughing a little. “Eh, I’m used to it.”

All the boys leaned against her a little harder, offering silent support.

“I do have to say though, this is probably our most bizarre bonding exercise to date.”

**Author's Note:**

> Take it easy on Shiro and Keith guys; I headcanon that Shiro grew up mainly with his grandfather and Keith lived with only his father for most of his childhood, and then he had greater concerns when he got shuffled into foster care than paying attention to the periods of the women around him. It's not surprising neither of them made the connection right away, but still they're both absolutely the kind of guys who'd run to the corner store for a pack of pads without hesitation. All four of them are.
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> [Come say hi on tumblr!](http://ace-pidge.tumblr.com/)


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